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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

readoecd 0.3.4

Repair release. Five of the eight data functions were broken against the live OECD API and returned nothing, or in one case an empty frame, without saying why. All five work again.

Errors were being reported as a connection problem

oecd_fetch() wrapped req_perform() in a tryCatch that reported every failure as “Failed to reach the OECD API. Check your internet connection”. Because req_perform() raises on 4xx and 5xx by default, that handler caught every HTTP error the API returned, so a 404 or a rate limit looked like a broken network. It also made the 429 and 404 branches further down the function unreachable: they had never run. The response is now allowed through with req_error(is_error = FALSE), and the tryCatch catches only genuine transport failures.

With the real errors visible, five separate upstream changes turned up. Nothing had been withdrawn; the OECD had moved versions and renamed codes.

Function Cause Fix
get_oecd_tax() Dataflow gained a CTRY_SPECIFIC_REVENUE dimension, so the filter was one position short and returned HTTP 422 Added the position
get_oecd_health() Requesting version 1.0 of a dataflow now at 1.1 returns no records Bumped to 1.1, and PT_GDP became PT_B1GQ
get_oecd_deficit() CHAPTER = "_Z" matched nothing Left the dimension open
get_oecd_current_account() COUNTERPART_AREA, FS_ENTRY and ADJUSTMENT all used _Z Now WXD, T and N
get_oecd_productivity() DSD_PDB@DF_PDB_LV answers HTTP 500 for every query Reads DSD_PDB@DF_PDB version 2.0

Tax revenue was returning an empty frame

Once the request succeeded, parse_tax() still returned nothing: all three of its filters used codes the OECD has since renamed. The institutional sector total is S13, not _T, and both revenue dimensions use _T rather than _Z. Verified against Australia, which now reports 27.8 to 29.5 per cent of GDP across 2015 to 2021, matching the published ratio.

Productivity needed more than a new dataflow

DF_PDB is the full productivity database rather than the levels extract the package used to read, so the same measure code appears as a level, a growth rate and an index. Taking it unfiltered mixed GDP per hour in US dollars with percentage changes, including negative values. parse_productivity() now selects the level, PPP-converted, total-economy slice, and takes chain linked volume rather than current prices: on the current-price basis Australian GDP per hour rises 38 per cent over 2015 to 2021 against 6 per cent in volume terms, and that difference is inflation rather than productivity.

Rate limiting

The API refuses further requests after a few dozen in quick succession, which a test run or a loop over countries reaches easily. Requests are now throttled to one per second, and 429 and 5xx responses are explicitly treated as transient so the existing retry applies to them. The network tests skip rather than fail when the portal is refusing, via a new expect_oecd() helper, so the suite stays a useful signal.

readoecd 0.3.4

  • Fixed incorrect function name in NEWS.md (get_oecd_trade corrected to get_oecd_current_account).
  • Fixed cache tag bug in get_oecd_unemployment() when requesting all countries.
  • Standardised NULL check pattern across all data functions.

readoecd 0.3.3

CRAN release: 2026-03-18

  • Examples now wrapped in try() to handle transient OECD API failures gracefully during CRAN checks.

readoecd 0.3.2

  • Removed non-existent pkgdown URL from DESCRIPTION.

readoecd 0.3.1

  • Examples now cache to tempdir() instead of the user’s home directory, fixing CRAN policy compliance for \donttest examples.
  • Cache directory is now configurable via options(readoecd.cache_dir = ...).

readoecd 0.3.0

CRAN release: 2026-03-12

readoecd 0.2.0

readoecd 0.1.0